Feature Archives

Barack Obama has chosen Rev. Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at the Presidential inauguration. Warren and his Saddleback church are well known for their strong anti-gay and anti-abortion views. LGBT activists demonstrated at Saddleback following the passage of Prop 8.

Valerie Paget and Tracie Jones, a Pasedena couple affected by the passage of Proposition 8, are on a march through California to demonstrate their conviction that the California Supreme Court should revoke Prop 8. They are marching from West Hollywood Park to the California Supreme Court in San Francisco. In coordination with Rick Jacobs of the Courage Campaign, they will deliver a petition to revoke Prop 8 that has been signed by over 250,000 people.

Service Employees International Union’s (SEIU) latest scheme to destroy SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West was denounced by Fresno elected officials on Thursday, December 11. Henry R. Perea, chairman of the Fresno County Board of Supervisors, exposed the sham election that the International is using to break up SEIU-UHW.

At the Santa Cruz City Council meeting on December 9th at 3:00pm, the Beach Flats Community Center, Harvey West Pool, Museum of Natural History and Surfing Museum were cut from the city budget. In light of the current fiscal crisis the city faces, closures of these facilities and reduction in the employee workforce are scheduled for February, 2009.

The City Council of Santa Cruz has applied to extend city services to the currently undeveloped UCSC Upper Campus. This is a key step in preparing this unique ecosystem for destruction under UCSC environmentally irresponsible Long Range Development Plan. The City Council's attempt to aid the University in this process is in direct contradiction to the expressed will of the people of Santa Cruz and it violates the city's existing municipal code.

On November 19th, the California Supreme Court granted review in the legal challenges to Proposition 8, a ballot measure that denied equal marriage rights to those in same-sex partnerships. In a sign that the court may not be willing to take a strong stand against discrimination, the court voted 6-1 not to let marriages resume while it considers the proposition's constitutionality.

Just a few days before the one-year anniversary of the aerial spraying for Light Brown Apple Moth (LBAM) in Santa Cruz, the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) released two studies about the pesticide applications in Monterey and Santa Cruz counties. While CDFA claims that these reports prove the safety of the eradication program, environmental groups and citizen advocates say that statement is misleading and point out fundamental shortcomings of both reports. Rather, they argue, they reveal another breach of the law by CDFA.